The NHL suspended Claude Giroux for Game 5 for his head shot hit on Dainius Zubrus. One game, no fine.

**

We sat around at the Marriott last night pretty much at a loss for words in trying to describe what the hell has become of the Flyers team that looked so confident and so dominant a couple weeks ago.

Perhaps more than any other sport, hockey is a game of wills and right now, the Flyers "will" has been broken.

They have the look of defeat on their faces in the dressing room and the talk sounds as if they are just as perplexed as we are as to why they have been so thoroughly dominated by the Devils.

And here's the rub. Goalie Ilya Bryzgalov has given them a chance to compete, a chance to win every game. It's not on him. It's on the 18 skaters around him every night.

I don't see any chance of the Flyers coming back in this series simply because I don't think we have seen any evidence that they have the necessary energy or willpower to do to the Devils what they have done to them through the past three losses.

Scott Hartnell is amazed that the Flyers can't get a forecheck going. The Devils have beaten the Flyers to pucks everywhere. They have won all the critical board battles.

While the Flyers leave gaping holes in their defensive zone coverages, the Devils have none. Every Flyer is marked. And when Chris Therien said on WIP Sunday it was like watching men against boys, he's talking about hard on the puck New Jersey has been while the FLyers have been soft on it for three, straight games.

They may find the energy to win one more time, but I think the series ends this week, regardless. The Flyers have no answers and neither does coach Peter Laviolette.

“It's just more frustrating the way we're playing,” Hartnell said. “We're playing soft hockey. We're playing almost scared to take a hit or make a play. We're getting pushed off pucks way to easy and that leads to us more D-zone time.

“We've got tired D out there, and that's why [they] are looking like they're dominating us. We're making soft, stupid plays.”

Given Lavy this much. He was honest in his assessment last night that New Jersey's will to compete is far greater than his own team's at this point.

“They move better, they were quicker,"he said. "They came up with pucks. The speed and quickness which we do things and puck battles have to be at a higher level.

“They are coming hard with their forecheck. They’re turning over a lot of pucks. We have to do a better job getting out of our end.

“Their defense is similar to their offense. They are skating well. We got pick up our skating. Right now, even defensively they are jumping on loose pucks and making it difficult.”

This is a year when it is plainly obvious the Stanley Cup is up for grabs with no dominant team out there. It's anyone's Cup right now.

Maybe even Mike Richards and Jeff Carter's in LA.

But it's not the Flyers.

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